How To Make Cottage Beer

Take a quarter of a peck of good white bran, and put it into ten gallons of water, with three handfuls of hops, boil the whole together until the bran and the hops sink to the bottom. Then strain it through a hair sieve into a cooler, and when it is about lukewarm, add two quarts of molasses. As soon as the molasses is thoroughly incorporated, pour the whole into a nine gallon cask, with two tablespoonfuls of yeast.

When the fermentation has subsided, bung up the cask, and in four days it will be fit for use. Table beer, if drawn off into stone jars, with a lump of white sugar in each, and securely corked, will keep good for several months.

Beer

To four gallons of water, take two pounds of sugar, one quart of molasses, half a teacupful of ginger, one pint of sots, two spoonfuls of cream of tartar, one and a half spoonfuls of ground allspice, and three drops of oil of sassafras. Put the spices into bags; heat the water and pour it over the spices; mix the whole of the ingredients in an open vessel, let it stand over night, then skim off the top of the liquid, take out the bags of spices, and pour it carefully into jugs, bottles, or a keg; it will be fit for use in twenty-four hours.

Spruce Beer

Pour eight gallons of cold water into a barrel; to this add eight gallons of boiling water; then put in six tablespoonfuls of essence of spruce, and sixteen pounds of molasses. When sufficiently cold, add half a pint of yeast, and roll the cask about, or shake it well. Keep it in a warm place for two days, with the bung open; by this time the fermentation will have subsided sufficiently for bottling. Bottle it, or put it in stone jars well corked, and it will be fit for use in a week.

Ginger Beer

One ounce and a half of ginger well bruised, one ounce of cream of tartar, one pound of loaf sugar, and one lemon, to every gallon of water. Put these ingredients into an earthen pan, and pour upon them the water boiling. When cold, add a teaspoonful of yeast to each gallon. Let it stand twenty-four hours, then skim it. Bottle it, and keep it in a cool place before you drink it.

The Best Ginger Beer

White sugar, twenty pounds; lemon or lime juice, eighteen ounces; honey, one pound; white ginger, bruised, twenty-two ounces; water, eighteen gallons. Boil the bruised ginger in three gallons of water for half an hour; then add the sugar, the juice, and the honey with the remainder of the water. Boil and strain. When cold, add the white of an egg, and half an ounce of essence of lemon. Allow it to ferment in the usual way. Then in about four days bottle it, and it will keep for months. Smaller quantities may be made by reducing the ingredients in equal proportions.